The Otto Community Development Organization (OCDO) is looking to deepen its relationship with the American Red Cross to ensure community resiliency and response. As the recent spate of wildfires in our region demonstrate, being prepared in advance can get communities through difficult times.
OCDO was incorporated in Otto in 1978. The Otto community building serves as a hub for potluck dinners, speakers, arts events, trivia nights, musical performances, dances, and blood drives. The organization is now looking at ways to serve the community when a natural disaster strikes.
Tom Young, OCDO’s president, is encouraged about potentially developing deeper ties with the American Red Cross. In early February, members of the OCDO met with American Red Cross representatives to explore the possibility of using the community building, located behind the current Otto Fire Department headquarters, as a possible emergency shelter.
“After [Hurricane] Helene, we were fortunate not to catch the brunt of it; however, there were a lot of power outages and loss of internet,” recounted Young about the events last September. “Even cell phone service was out.”
“Our building maintained power and internet, so we just opened it up daily for almost a week. People could come and use our WiFi service to make their phone calls, because a lot of people were having trouble contacting family… They just couldn’t connect. So that was a nice aspect to be able to allow families to connect with people who were concerned about them,” explained Young.
He added, “We also ended up getting from the county some MREs [Meals Ready to Eat] and water to distribute to the area residents.”
The American Red Cross tie-in
“One of our board members is familiar with Red Cross shelters, and one of our board members coordinates the local blood drive. So, between the two of them, we have a little bit of a Red Cross connection,” said Young, on how the board decided to explore the next step of considering using its building as an official emergency shelter in future events.
Explaining the process of working with American Red Cross, Young said, “We submitted a preliminary online survey to Red Cross about becoming a shelter. After that comes an in-person inspection, which we have not been notified of [as] yet. For the path forward, if the building doesn’t need a lot of work, which we don’t anticipate it will, we’ll be able to make the adjustments and move forward, get training, and get volunteers into training.”
Young said the organization will focus on due diligence by reaching out to the fire department and Macon County Emergency Services Management to ensure coordination and collaboration, if the agreement with American Red Cross moves forward.
“Fortunately, natural disasters are not very common in this area,” said Young. He also hopes the building could serve as a potential support link when severe weather events such as hurricanes or ice storms cause disruptions.
Dispelling a rumor that had circulated around the community, Young emphatically said the building would not be used as a permanent homeless shelter, just a temporary shelter during natural disaster events.